Beth Cornelison - The Return of Connor Mansfield

Connor had heard enough. “Darby...”

Her gaze jerked to him, her green eyes blazing. “Do you hear what they’re asking? Do you have any idea how much it would hurt your parents for me to tell them the little girl they love, the grandchild they believe was a posthumous gift from you, isn’t really yours?”

A sharp ache speared him. The last thing he wanted was to cause his family or Darby any more pain. “I hate this as much as you do, but we have to consider all the options.”

She rounded on him. “Do you hate it? You hurt us all easily enough when you faked your death five years ago! What’s one more stab in the back to a family you already walked away from? The family who grieves for you even today!”

Connor stiffened. “Leaving you, letting my family think I was dead was the hardest thing I’ve ever done! I hated the idea of my parents thinking I’d died, of you going through that kind of heartache and grief. Of my brothers—” He huffed in frustration as a knot of his own grief balled in his chest. “I did it to protect you. All of you! And I’d rather that sacrifice not go to waste by blowing my cover now.”

“I will not lie to the people I love. I cannot hurt them that way!” Darby poked him in the chest, then flopped back against the seat and crossed her arms stubbornly.

“Even if it means protecting the father of your child from men who want to kill him?” Jones asked.

Darby snapped her attention to the marshal, her anger clearly slipping a notch when faced with the brutal reality of the situation. Her mouth opened, as if to reply, then closed again.

Connor turned toward her, tamping his own frustration in order to keep his tone nonconfrontational. This might be his only chance to see Darby, to touch her and explain the choices he’d made, and he refused to spend it arguing. “Honey, forget about me for a minute. Yes, having my cover blown would put me at risk, but more important to me is the danger you and Savannah might be in. And my family. If the Gales find out I’m alive, they might strike at you to get back at me. They know the best way to hurt me is to hurt the people I love.”

A shadow of fear crept into her eyes, and she wet her lips. “Connor, I don’t want you or anyone else to get hurt, but there has to be another way. Your family can keep the secret that you’re alive if—”

“No,” Jones interrupted. “The more people who know, the higher the risk. We have to contain this. We need your word that you’ll cooperate with us, whatever it takes, in order to keep Sam alive and your family safe.”

“And we need that commitment now,” Raleigh added. “We’re at the hospital.”

Connor glanced out the side window, and sure enough, they’d reached St. Mary’s. He glanced up at the brick edifice, and his heart seized. His daughter was inside those walls. The little girl he’d made with Darby. A longing so pure and deep flooded him that he couldn’t breathe for a moment.

Raleigh and Jones were still trying to impress upon Darby the importance of her complete silence, the need for her to agree to whatever lie they invented about Savannah’s parentage.

“I want to see her,” he blurted. Three heads swiveled toward him.

“What?” Darby asked.

He held Darby’s gaze, bittersweet longing swelling in his chest. “I want to see my daughter.”

Though he knew in his head all the reasons it was a bad idea, his heart shouted down the rational voice of his conscience. He might never have this chance again, a chance to meet his firstborn, the opportunity to hold her, hug her, tell her he loved her. He took Darby’s hands in his, his pulse thudding unsteadily. “Let me meet Savannah. Please?”

“Uhhh,” Raleigh said, dragging out the syllable to reflect his uncertainty. “Not a good idea.”

Connor ignored the marshal, still holding Darby’s hands and gaze, waiting. If she agreed, he’d move heaven and earth to make time with his daughter happen.

Tears filled her eyes, and she bit her bottom lip when it trembled. Hurt and anger darkened her gaze. “I want to say no. I want to say you gave up the right to see her when you walked out of our lives.”

Connor tensed and squeezed her hands. “I didn’t know you were pregnant.”

She nodded her concession on that point. “That’s why I can’t justify keeping you from her. You’re her father. You have a right to see her.”

Behind him, Jones grunted. “Sam, we can’t—”

“I am.” He shifted on the seat to face Marshal Jones, determination firming his resolve. “I am going to meet my daughter. With or without your help.”

Chapter 4

Clearly sensing a lengthy discussion was in the offing, Marshal Raleigh pulled away from the curb in front of the hospital and circled the block, finding another alley to park in. Jones and Raleigh took some convincing to cooperate with Connor’s insistence on meeting Savannah. But with some brainstorming help from Darby and Connor, they developed a cover to get Connor into Darby’s house without raising any red flags with the Gales.

“Wait. What about Hunter?” Darby asked as they headed back toward the hospital.

“Who’s Hunter?” Raleigh asked.

“My youngest brother,” Connor said.

“Hunter was with me when I got the call from the doctor’s office asking if I could explain why Sam Orlean’s DNA tests showed such a significant parental match.” She glanced from Connor to the marshals. “He knows I was trying to intercept you at Dr. Reed’s office to find out who you were, why the tests showed you were Savannah’s father.”

“All the more reason to go with the one-night-stand story,” Jones said.

Darby shook her head. “He won’t buy it. Hunter knows me better than that. He knows I suspected Sam Orlean was Connor.”

“Then tell him you were too late to catch up with Sam,” Raleigh offered. “Tell him the doctor’s office realized they’d mixed up records and apologized for the confusion.”

She snorted her disagreement. “I can’t lie to Hunter. He’ll see right through me.”

“My brother is trustworthy,” Connor said quietly, turning toward Jones. “Now that Darby knows the truth, maybe it’d be best to tell Hunter about WitSec, as well. He can keep it quiet.”

“Yes!” Darby nodded her agreement. “Let me tell Hunter the truth. He won’t believe that anyone but Connor is Savannah’s father, and he reads me too well for me to lie about any of this.”

In the front seat, Raleigh groaned.

Jones rubbed his face with his hand. “You understand that the more people who know who Sam is, the more risk there is of the wrong people finding out?”

Raleigh pulled to a stop once more at the hospital entrance and turned toward the backseat. “Do I need to circle the block again?”

“Hunter won’t talk.” Connor narrowed a certain gaze on Jones. “We can trust him.”

Jones and Raleigh exchanged a long dark look, as if communicating telepathically.

Darby twisted her hands in her lap, her heart still racing from adrenaline and her brain muddled with the surrealism of the past half hour. Finally, Raleigh sighed and turned back to the front window, while muttering under his breath about hell in a hand basket.

“Okay.” Jones flipped up his palms. His expression said he was far from happy about acquiescing. “But tell Hunter as little as possible until we’ve had a chance to debrief him and impress upon him the urgency of his silence.”

Darby gave a jerky nod and opened the car door. “I understand.”

As she slid out of the backseat, Connor caught her arm. “Darby.” She faced him, waiting for him to continue. Emotions played over his face, clearly telling her how conflicted he was, deciding what he wanted to say, what he could say. As if he were torn between what was in his heart and the masquerade he was playing.